The Sims 2 community is interesting. When one or two Modders stop answering questions about the games files and goes MIA, two other Modders come out the blue and pick up the slack.

In all my time of making clothes for sims, I was never good at making shirt hems or sleeve hems so they look like actual shirts. My few attempts at hems makes them overlap the shirt part. the sleeves are a lot more tricky for me.

I keep getting tempted to try a project that would take a HUGE amount of CFE work in a number of different ways... and if it was just one CFE method that would be needed I think I'd have started it, but trying to make them all work together successfully is really daunting...

What's CFE

CFE refers to the use of the boolprop constrainFloorElevation false building cheat. It allows you to do things with levels that would otherwise not be possible. I am really one of the worst people here to explain CFE because, although I have used it in at least one of the building contests that I've entered or played along with, I have forgotten how I used it! Perhaps one or more of the "master builders" here will explain it better than I can.

Constrain Floor Elevation. By default, the floors are constrained in the game, and the cheat changes that, so that you can change the levels of the floors and that leads to lower, higher, slanted, curved walls (and all kinds of other things).
Depending on what you want the lot to look like, there are different ways to use CFE to achieve different outcomes, eg.
To build a bridge, you lift floor tiles (which is grass/ground level) by clicking them until the bridge curves the way you want it to curve
For other effects, you put foundation on a lower (or higher) than ground level.
I think what is confusing is that the walls change - but the builder is actually changing floors, and the floors have to be on the same level (which is not the same as the same height. A foundation is 4 clicks high. If you put a square of foundation down, and a tile away (both on the ground) - the wall is higher than the foundation. But the top of the wall and the top of the foundation is the same floor. Which means you can lower that wall from the foundation, or make the foundation higher from the wall. But if you put another wall on top of the first wall, you need to put one on the foundation as well to get them to have the same floor level. Hope it makes sense, @AndrewGloria).

Isn't it kinda funny how the terms "neighborhood" and "world" in the Sims 2 and Sims 4 would make more sense if they were switched around?

In TS2, neighborhoods are their own contained thing and your sims can't move from one neighborhood to another (excluding subhoods of course). That's their whole "world" they'll live in forever.
But in TS4, all the so-called worlds in your game are connectable and your sims can just go visit another world, so isn't it counterintuitive to call them that? Those are more like "neighborhoods".

That was my random thought of the day...

I always thought they should have stuck with calling the "worlds" in Sims 3 and 4 "neighbourhood" because that was always the "stroyline" implication for me, be it Sims 1, 2, 3, or 4. They live in a neighbourhood/suburb of Sim City and there's lots of other neighbourhoods and districts which we never see where they go to work and where the Townies and NPCs live.

Sims 1 and 2 even alluded to this; for example in Sims 1 the Pizza Delivery Guy would say something like "Wow I didn't even take an hour from Sim City to get here!" and in both games Sim City is mentioned in several chance cards and such.

AAH good point !
But in the sims 3, we have City Town on each world so I better called them Cities instead of world.
Just because world is not a correct word to me, each sims 3 cities has got almost the same venues as every towns in real life.


I know why they call neighborhood the place the sims 2 live in just because they are all connected to the area Downtown and connected to the Island for vacations, Bluewater village, and to all Universities?

Sometimes the logical use for a big space doesn't quite line up with the actual small amount of space needed in-game for that use... so you end up like me, trying to find a layout for a salon that uses the maximum possible space without looking like I'm trying to use the maximum possible space!

Playing sims 2 without music is so peaceful. Just like playing Zelda BOTW with music. Both are relaxing and I can organize things better too.

That special feeling when you get to go on your first real date and your mom is at the bar watching you make out on the dance floor. Not cool, Cassandra.

Taking an IRL vacation trip for the first time since the pandemic started and visiting new National Parks along the way has me wanting to make more locations and maybe even a terrain map for the fictional Temple Mountains National Park that I'd used as my theme for Karen's vacation destination building contest several years back... I miss being in a park.

I should load my game up after getting my shopping done and check on my new neighborhood project as my own playthough of that town known as Arbor Valley.I'm doing my own playthrough of the town as an early colonial settlement in the new world.The version being uploaded won't be built or decorated as it got loaded with decor when creating it from the terrain map in the game and all I did for the publicly shared version was remove all of the decor from the map.

Wandered back into the 20th century again in "Tinsel Town" and the town is still there. Thankfully this game stops where you stop it and so you can pick up the pieces again with not much to do.
Of course I had to refer to my notes, but I'm trying to get Victor Shaw interested in an available woman and all he wants to do is make out with Asherah Swason Walton, who is married but is giving him very mixed signals. She's such a terrible tease!
Also wondering if Sara Stewart is really interested in having a child with her older husband Andy-suspecting that he killed his ex wife and her husband..she dearly loves his two sons by his late wife, and she's very worried about herself and their safety. She wonders if they're actually safe..and how to make sure she gets all of Andy's money before he dies so she won't be penniless. She's been pretty cool to him lately and I'm beginning to think she's afraid of Andy.

Perhaps this belongs under "Custom Content You Would Like to See," but this would have to change the way sewing works in the game, which probably involves changes to CAS, and ain't nobody got time for that even if it wouldn't require breaking into the source code. By its nature, it would have to be a game feature with implications for how CC works rather than custom content. So I figure that makes it a random thought.

So you know what would be awesome? If garment sewing in Sims 2 worked the way it does in real life, in that you can follow the pattern (with small standardized alterations to fit your figure and suit your needs which is the #1 reason to sew your own clothes - the waistband doesn't dip in the back and the pockets are big enough, hurray!) or - you can introduce variations.

I just altered a cute simple dress pattern which, in its original form, has a V-neck which requires me to wear a certain style of bra, so that future iterations will have a scoop neck that I can wear more different bras with. Even just using the base pattern, it can be different lengths and be sleeveless, short-sleeved, or three-quarter sleeved. I also recently got a packet of patterns that's just sleeves I can add to any bodice pattern I like. One of my go-to simple patterns started out with skirt and bodice cut as four separate pieces, but the alterations to fit those shapes properly to my particular figure were complicated, so I wound up Frankensteining the four pieces into one front and one back with no waistline. Theoretically, if I were any good at manipulating shapes in my head and translating one-dimensional figures into three-dimensional shapes, which is what you're doing when you design clothes, once I learned a sufficient number of techniques, I wouldn't need a commercial pattern at all but could be my own designer.

So wouldn't it be cool if, instead of an array of outfits to choose from just like in CAS (and only full body ones, at that), you were given a base mesh with an array of options: princess seams, darts, yoke, unfitted; pleats, A-line, straight, sheath, gored, frilled, button front, draped, handkerchief; strapless, spaghetti strap, sleeveless, raglan, cap, etc. etc. etc. you have no idea how many sleeve styles there are; wide-legged, skinny, straight, flared, bellbottom; cowl neck, boat neck, peter pan, mandarin, scoop, V, square, sailor; patch pockets, in-seam, breast pocket, yoke - maybe this could be tied in with skills or garment sewing could be available starting with the bronze badge and more options be available with silver and gold. (Beginners should also be able to make something besides potholders; you don't learn new skills making the same potholder time after time, but that's a separate issue. Or maybe not.) You'd build these options on a blank mannequin form and then add textures from a different screen - solids, stripes, checks, tartans, and prints, ideally with separate color options so you could pick base color and figure color instead of having sixteen screens of the same tartan in different color combos.

Making clothing CC and recolors would be much different with such a setup; but it would also be much easier to get into at the novice levels, because though adding new styles would require meshing, simple recolors and minor variations would have a tool right there in the game.

That reminds me of the skin creator that got released with later versions of TS1. You could choose an existing mesh and overlay various textures.

I remember that. They didn't have anything like enough textures or meshes and I quickly got frustrated with it; but I wasn't hooked into the simming community then and might have missed some CC for it.

For several days now, I've loaded the game and the family I wanted to play, and then looked at the house with the game paused, then regretted and quit the game without ever unpausing it. I guess sometimes just looking at a lot is enough satisfaction for the day

I do that often too XD Just starting the game for 20 minutes just to look around and then decide to not play and just quit without every doing anything XD

I've sometimes loaded my game up wanting to play and had to quit after only a few simple edits to a lot because I didn't really have time to play for long.

I know I've had an emotional year, with the death of my mother at the end of June, but I was surprised at how emotionally I reacted to the birth of a baby boy to Consort Capp (now Consort Hutchins-Capp) and his young wife April Hutchins-Capp (nee Hutchins). April hadn't wanted a baby, and cried when she got a positive result for a pregnancy test. But when she gave birth to a healthy baby boy, and I saw the look of maternal pride, and indeed sheer joy in her face, the whole 'miracle of new life' thing completely blew me away and I shed real tears of joy. The other Sims who were with her, including the midwife who didn't quite make it to the bedroom in time, and of course Consort, the father, all looked so happy too. Caspar is the first baby born in Veronaville nearly nine years, so I'm sure his birth is a sign of hope.

He was born at about half past eleven on Tuesday night Veronaville time. (I was expecting him after midnight, which is how Enid the midwife didn't make it in time.) That makes him Tuesday's Child. Full of Grace?

May life be good to you, little one!

Pictures here

I've done the same thing-loaded the game, start with one house and then close it down, feeling very frustrated at what was supposed to happen next.

My imagination sometimes has a big fail.

I've run into that issue where I loaded my game and wasn't sire of what should happen next and having WordPad documents can really help with guidelines of what I need to do next according to the challenge rules like building on a community lot or moving a new couple in or playing a family alreaady living in the town even if it's the only couple already living there.I'll have only one couple to start with for my Pleasantview game for at least the first year or two and will mix that up with building on the service center until another couple arrives on another sailing ship bringing supplies to the colony.

I don't know what this says about me, but . . .

If I'm playing a conventional family (and a lot of my households are anything but conventional!); if it's a sort of traditional family with parent(s), children and teens, I usually end up spending most of my time with the teens and the children. I won't completely neglect the adults. I'll look after their needs and motives, and, if they really need a promotion (because money is too tight) I'll get them to skill for it. And, if somebody interesting walks by, and the teens and children are preoccupied, I'll send an adult (or elder) out to greet them. And of course they'll cook meals for children, and for teens who are too "busy" to cook them themselves. In many ways the role of adults in my game is to facilitate the lives of the younger Sims.

I'm not sure why. Maybe I'm just immature. But I've never been a parent, or indeed ever wanted to be one. But, even if it's a long time ago, I was once a teen, and before that I was a child, and I seem to find it quite easy to empathise with them. I suppose I'm attracted to that period when life, with all its possibilities still lies before you, and is yours to do what you can with it. Many children and teens have a sense of idealism, not yet tarnished by the grim realities of adult life. I suppose I just find them a little more fun to play than their parents.